Count von Count
Count von Count, often known simply as "the Count" or "Count", is one of the Muppet characters on Sesame Street. The Count is a vampire modeled after Bela Lugosi's interpretation of Count Dracula. Description and Personality The Count's main role in the show is to educate children about simple mathematical concepts, most notably, as his name implies, counting. The Count loves counting so much that he often will count anything and everything regardless of size or amount, and the other characters can sometimes be quite annoyed by this. In Episode 0746 (Season 6, 1975), for example, he hired Ernie to answer his telephone so that he wouldn't be bothered while looking for things to count and then impulsively forbade him from answering the first call that came through until it was too late, because he wanted to count all 5 times the telephone rang, and when the person on the other end tried calling back, a melee soon followed (to be fair, he did warn Ernie that the job "wouldn't be easy"). In Episode 2283 (Season 18, 1987), on his first day of serving as an elevator operator, he foolishly neglected to let Kermit the Frog out at his selected floor, because he wanted to count all 10 floors in the building, and was unable to stop until he finished. And in Episode 3489 (Season 27, 1996), he tricked Oscar the Grouch into saying the word "no" 17 times, by continuously knocking on his trash can and prodding him to help the Count find something to count 17 of. The Count can occasionally lose his temper when somebody or something interrupts his counting, or feel sad when there is nothing around for him to count. But apart from these, he is typically portrayed as friendly and cheerful. The Count lives in an old cobweb-infested castle which he shares with many bats and a cat named Fatatita. He spent his childhood in the Carpathian Mountains, which makes it clear he is Romanian. Perhaps not surprisingly, he speaks in an accent from that area of the world. His pet bats tend to have Slavic names, such as Grisha, Misha, Sasha, and Tatiana. He views the bats as his "children" and sometimes counts them. As a running gag, his castle has a squeaky door, which visitors always point out, only for the Count to instantly change the subject to his counting addiction. The Count drives a special car, the Countmobile, designed to look like a bat. (cf. Batmobile) The Count has been shown with a number of girlfriends, who tend to be vampire Countesses. These include Countess von Backwards (debuting in Sesame Street's 28th season) who counts backwards; Countess Dahling von Dahling (debuted in the 12th season); and one simply called "The Countess" (first appearing in season 8). The von Count family includes an unnamed brother and mother as well as an Uncle Uno and grandparents. According to BBC News, during an interview with the More or Less team's Tim Harford, the Count said his favorite number is 34,969. The Count was quoted as saying, "It's a square-root thing.": 34,969 is a perfect square, being 1872. The Count mentions 2:30 at any chance he can get and often makes jokes about it. This number is likely a tooth-related pun ("Tooth Hurty"). During the afternoon, his segments of the show always come on at exactly 2:30 p.m. or during the "fashionably late" segment, which airs at 2:31. The Count's signature song is "The Song of the Count". The song was written by Jeff Moss as a traditional Hungarian Csárdás. He might not be a vampire in the classic sense, given that he has been seen with a reflection in a mirror, and he has no problem with being out in the daylight. Performers * Jerry Nelson - (1972 - 2012) * Matt Vogel - (2013 - present) Appearances * Elmo Says BOO! * Halloween (Sesame Street) * Trick or Treat on Sesame Street Category:Characters Category:Character stubs Category:Sesame Street Category:Male Characters Category:Vampires Category:Monsters Category:The Jim Henson Company